From: hekunze@mercator.math.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 08/02
Date: 1996/08/04
Message-ID:
X-Deja-AN: 172014131
sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
organization: University of Waterloo
newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
{ Apologies for posting this late. As it is, I didn't update the web
page until Friday and then I just forgot to post this. My students
wrote their final exam on Thursday night, so I just didn't have the
energy to get things posted when I got home at 11pm. }
[Wrestling TidBits]
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Picture of the Week
This week's picture is a collage featuring the incredible Mitsuhara Misawa
& Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue double tag title change from
All Japan. This was Akiyama's first win over Kawada and the storyline of
the match was built around that. It's an easy strong match-of-the-year
contender.
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[ - ] Chris Jericho debuts in WCW at the 08/15 Clash of Champions. There is
talk that WCW is going to dump lousy guys like Jim Duggan and V.K.
Wallstreet when their contracts are up.
[ - ] I received the following letter from Phil Lind, Vice Chairman of
Rogers Communications, in response to my letter regarding the UFC being
dropped in Canada. It's hardly an informative answer, so I'll be following
it up with another polite inquiry.
[ - ] There is talk that WCW wants to push Psicosis.
[Tiger][ - ] Crush (Bryan Adams) is the wrestler that Clarence Mason is
trying to bring in to the WWF. Since it was reasonable widely
publicized that Adams was arrested on drug and weapon charges, the WWF can
cover its butt by creating a storyline where the promotion doesn't want
this ex-con.
[ - ] On this coming week's RAW, Ahmed Johnson wins a battle royal to
determine the challenger for the WWF Title on the live RAW following
SummerSlam. I guess this is supposed to tease that Shawn Michaels will drop
the title.
[ - ] Jushin Liger's junior champion tournament kicks off this week. The
draw looks like this:
Great Sasuke ---\
(IWGP Jr., Michinoku Pro) \
|---\
/ \
Masayoshi Motegi ---/ \
(NWA Jr.) \
|---\
/ \
Jushin Liger ---\ / \
(British Commonwealth Jr., NJ) \ / \
|---/ \
/ \
El Ultimo Dragon ---/ \
(War Jr. International, WAR) \
|--- winner
/
El Gran Hamada ---\ /
(WWA Jr., Michinoku Pro) \ /
|---\ /
/ \ /
El Samurai ---/ \ /
(WWF lightheavy, NJ) \ /
|---/
/
Shinjiro Otani ---\ /
(UWA Jr., NJ) \ /
|---/
/
Negro Casas ---/
(NWA welterweight, EMLL)
The first pair of opening round matches takes place on 08/02 and the second
pair take place on 08/03. The semi-finals are on 08/04 and the finals are
on 08/05. The tournament is billed as unifying all eight titles (!) to
decide the one true junior champion.
[Benoit][ - ] WCW has Hog Wild on 08/10/96. Line-up has:
* Giant vs. Hulk Hogan for the WCW Title
* Sting & Lex Luger vs. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash
* Ric Flair vs. Eddy Guerrero for the US Title
* Harlem Heat vs. Steiners for the WCW Tag Titles
* Chris Benoit vs. Kevin Sullivan
* Scott Norton vs. Ice Train
* Madusa vs. Bull Nakano
* Rey Misterio Jr. vs. El Ultimo Dragon
The PPV takes place on a Saturday and will be preceded by a live two-hour
Saturday Night show. Everybody is predicting that Hulk Hogan will not win
the WCW Title on this show; I would think that they certainly have to put
the NWO over strong to keep the angle alive, but I suppose there are ways
to do that without giving Hogan the title.
If you're wondering why WCW would suddenly hold a PPV on a Saturday night,
just remember that Sunday is Hulk Hogan's birthday. I'm sure that's just a
coincidence.
[Liger][ - ] WCW has Clash of Champions XXXIII on 08/15/96. Tentative
line-up has
* Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair
* Sting & Lex Luger vs. Harlem Heat vs. Steiners in a triangle tag match
* Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddy Guerrero
* Chris Benoit vs. Giant
* Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis
* Konnan vs. El Ultimo Dragon
* Chris Jericho vs. Hugh Morrus
* Jim Duggan vs. V.K. Wallstreet
It's also expected that Doug Furnas will debut for WCW at this show.
[ - ] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/18/96. Line-up has:
* Shawn Michaels vs. Vader for the WWF Title
* Ahmed Johnson vs. Owen Hart for the IC Title
* Godwinns vs. Bodydonnas vs. Smoking Gunns vs. New Rockers in an
elimination tag match
* Psycho Sid vs. Davey Boy Smith
* Undertaker vs. Mankind in a boiler room match
* Jake Roberts vs. Jerry Lawler
* Marc Mero vs. Goldust
Many people are reporting that this card will mark the end of the
Undertaker gimmick.
[ - ] The WWF has the sequel to the Big Event at the Canadian National
Exhibition in Toronto on 08/24/96. Line-up has:
* Shawn Michaels vs. Goldust for the WWF Title in a ladder match
* Psycho Sid vs. Vader
[ - ] Those that don't read rec.sport.pro-wrestling (and I know that that
that describes a large chunk of the people that read this weekly) may
be curious to know that this paragraph from last week:
[Ron Simmons' debut] is a little funny because late last week local mat fan
& ECW supporter, Sanjay Mohanta, was trying to convince me that Ron Simmons
should be pushed into a feud with Steve Austin, saying that it would be
better than having Austin waste his time with Savio Vega. I responded that
Vega and Simmons are very close to the same level on my talent scale.
Anyhow, Simmons' debut has Sanjay just shaking his head from side to side
and sighing.
gave rise to a post calling me "stupid" for saying that Simmons and Vega
were both "poor" wrestlers. Now, if only I would have said that. For the
record, I think they are both reasonably mediocre and could easily be
pushed to the upper half of either major US promotion these days. Simmons'
wrestling debut will be on the 08/12 RAW.
[ - ] Also, in the past week or so, I've been involved in what could be
called a conservative flame war in rec.sport.pro-wrestling. In short, I had
the audacity to say that:
* Sandman is a poor wrestler,
* fans who only like blood and violence are vampires/ghouls, and
* the ECW ringside fans that one sees on every shows are morons.
The original discussion was based on the first point: Sandman's level of
ability. I've seen at least 20-25 matches with the Sandman spanning from
earlier this year back to 1990. His only abilities in all those matches
were blading (often in plain sight) and brawling. I have nothing against
either of these elements of pro-wrestling and actually think both have a
place, but these are all that he delivers. Worse yet, the brawling is
nonsensical. What do I mean by that? Well, it actually applies to many
brawls (in ECW and elsewhere): wrestlers whacking each other with as many
objects as possible without selling (see Kevin Sullivan) or building
anything using some psychology; wrestlers dragging each other around the
Arena or, worse yet, walking around the Arena because they both know where
the next big spot is to take place and can't bother to do something logical
to get to that location; you get the idea. For an example of great
brawling, see Bruiser Brody in Japan. The things I've seen from him in
other organizations have been a mix of good and bad, but in Japan he was
always careful to deliver smart brawls. I would suggest that the above
practices (blading in plain sight, not selling, brawling nonsensically) are
bad whenever they occur. I think that's absolute.
What do I mean by "bad?" I don't mean that people can't like things that
are of bad quality. Think of the movies. Certain actors (Al Pacino, Robert
Deniro) are pretty much universally viewed as good, and others (Pauly
Shore, Leslie Neilson) are pretty much universally viewed as bad. That
doesn't mean I won't sit down and watch a movie with Leslie Neilson and be
entertained by it; it does mean that I know that it is a lousy movie,
however entertaining. The same thing is true of restaurants. Personal
tastes come into what types of movies you frequent and type of food you
enjoy most, but when you say one of these things is "good" or "bad" you are
saying something about it's innate quality. Personal disagreements occur,
but mature, experienced adults can come to some sort of concensus on which
things are in the "good" box and which are in the "bad" (think of the
actors above or comparing TV shows (would anyone call "Melrose Place" good?
I wouldn't, but I enjoy watching it with my girlfriend)).
The same is true, I think, for pro-wrestlers. Certainly that's been
established in the newsgroup over the years. Hulk Hogan, even though he was
darn popular with the buying public, was pretty much viewed as lousy in
r.s.p-w and rec.sport.misc before that. Dusty Rhodes, less popular with the
public based on his ability to draw money, is similarly remembered as being
poorly skilled. Ultimate Warrior, Sid Eudy, Jim Duggan. While people may
enjoy watching these guys, I don't think anybody would buy an argument that
they are skilled. Certainly, a huge majority of people in r.s.p-w would put
the five above wrestlers in the "bad" bin. "Good" and "bad" have nothing to
do with what a person likes or what is successful. It's quite possible for
people to not care about the quality of things. They like what they like
and that's the end of it for them. That doesn't mean that the quality
differences don't exist. Further, I'm personally not particularly
interested in further separating the "good" and "bad" wrestlers. Both the
Ultimate Warrior and Jim Duggan are "bad" and both Chris Benoit and Shawn
Michaels are "good"; it's not as worthwhile to go further. It is worthwhile
to separate the wheat from the chaff, but it's hardly as worthwhile to then
sift through the wheat or chaff to separate them some more.
In the case of pro-wrestlers, fans that have seen a large amount of
wrestling from different promotions over some time period are likely better
able to rate the merits of various pro-wrestlers. This is hardly a stretch.
Every single fan has the power to decide what to support and what to enjoy,
though.
When you say something bad about anything ECW-related, you take a chance.
The fans love that product so much that they pounce. Even though I've said
time and time again that I find enough things in ECW for me to enjoy that I
bother to get the tapes, people say, "you hate ECW." I don't, but I don't
praise it blindly either. Somebody posted an article talking about a
fictional match between Sandman and 1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly, which I took as
a knock on the ability of the latter two wrestlers. Somehow the observation
that Sandman is not a good wrestler, something with which several follow-up
posters agreed, was too much. "Can't I enjoy who I want?" Of course you can
and I've never said otherwise. This whole discussion of what people enjoy
is a red herring; it's irrelevant to the objective merits of the
wrestler(s) at hand. It is perfectly fine to just want to enjoy
pro-wrestling and not bother to think about quality at all (ditto movies or
food), but it is silly to suggest that everybody is probably "good" to
someone.
But, of course, the egalitarian crowd can have none of that. Haven't you
heard? All opinions are equal regardless of intellectual merit. This idea
of equal mediocrity is prevalent in school systems and, no surprise, in
society in general. News broadcasts have irksome "man in the street"
segments where somebody, with no credentials mentioned, talks about a
serious issue. Who cares? What authority does the person have? It's never
explained because it's not important, apparently, or perhaps because it
would remind us that people have different aptitudes. Still, if a teacher
says that Johnny is above average, then that brands Joey as average or
below. Surely not! Joey is just as good to some other observer and don't
you suggest otherwise! I recall with laughter the news story saying that an
entire class was rated "above average" by a grade school teacher. At least
nobody was made to feel bad.
Sandman has a cool, "hardcore" attitude and character, I'm told. Why does
his character, popular with "hardcore" fans, make him "good" and Hogan's
character, popular with a hell of a lot more people in the 1980s, still
leave him "bad?" Because the people that call Sandman "good" are just
saying that they like him and are not actually looking at his limited
abilities. The big ability that everybody holds up in Sandman's case is
brawling. As outlined above, ECW brawls are often nonsensical or
one-dimensional, yet some people here will rave about any of them because
they have blood, foreign objects, and some stunts. Fans of blood have long
been called vampires/ghouls; I brought this term up when people said that
Sandman was "good" primarily because he's violent.
Finally, while several flamers extended it as an insult to all ECW fans, I
did only say that I've come to the conclusion that the ECW ringside fans
are morons. You can take that as imflammatory if you wish; in this case,
I'm just expressing an opinion that is arguable.
[ - ] [Nitro] beat [RAW] on 07/22 with a 2.6 rating (4.2 share) against a
2.2 rating (3.3 share). Nitro's two hour broadcast rating is averaged. This
week's ratings were both lower than expected, with Nitro showing a sizeable
drop from the recent stellar period and RAW being surprisingly weak for a
live post-PPV show. The Observer reports that for overall TV viewership for
the week ending 07/07, WCW drew 6.88 million homes on 175 stations while
the WWF drew 4.20 million homes on 153 stations. The detailed ratings are a
click away.
[ - ] The PPV buy rates of the past six month (year or so) show that the
WWF has an average buy rate of 0.89 (0.73) and average gross of
$2.48-million ($1.79-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.60
(0.54) and average gross of $1.80-million ($1.28-million). The details are
an interesting read.
[ - ] WCW has Fall Brawl 09/15/96. Tentative line-up has:
* Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael vs. Hulk
Hogan & the man formerly known as Razor Ramon & the man formerly known
as Diesel & the man formerly known as 1-2-3 Kid in a War Games match
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House] on 09/22/96.
[ - ] WCW has Halloween Havoc 10/27/96 from Caeser's Palace. It will be an
outdoor show. This is the first show that Jeff Jarrett can work.
Tentative line-up has:
* Sting & Lex Luger & Randy Savage & Giant vs. Hulk Hogan & the man
formerly known as Razor Ramon & the man formerly known as Diesel & the
man formerly known as 1-2-3 Kid in a War Games match
This leads one to draw conclusions on the finish of the 09/15 show. It
would be great if they did a Memphis finish of having Jarrett interfere to
give the NWO the win, perhaps by hiding under the double ring?
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House] on 10/20/96.
[ - ] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/17/96.
[ - ] WCW has World War III 11/24/96.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House] on 12/15/96.
[ - ] WCW has Starrcade on 12/29/96. The Observer reports that there are
very serious talks about doing the show live from Tokyo.
[ - ] WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The
wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history,
Japanese wrestling stuff, and other things.
[ - ] Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If
you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request.
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E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca